In Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire,” Lestat, Louis, and Claudia’s relationship is proven to be complicated and forced upon by Lestat. He turns them into vampires, Louis first because he wanted the company, and Claudia to keep Louis with around after he shows thoughts of leaving. While Claudia becomes a child figure to the men, Lestat even claiming that she is their daughter, she grows to hate Lestat, while still caring for Louis.
Vampires are presented today as romanticized, and more appealing than they really were back then. It is even mentioned at the end of the novel how the boy interviewing Louis wishes to be turned, believing that becoming a vampire and living forever is far greater than mortality. In the novel, however, Lestat is apathetic and even encouraging over the action of killing and feasting on human blood. He takes great joy in doing so, and tries to coax Louis into following in his footsteps. Louis, before raising Claudia, felt as if he was stuck with Lestat, quoting he was at “a great disadvantage,” and that there was much he didn’t know about being a vampire. He still cares for humans, and the idea of families. He chooses to feast on animals for as long as he can after Lestat explained to him how living off of animals was possible. Whether this is because he cares about him, or because he simply wants to keep him alive for his own gain, I am unsure. The relationship between them, as I see it, is rather toxic, where one being forced to stay with the other seemingly against his will.
As mentioned before, Claudia grows a hatred towards Lestat; despite having the power to live forever and the knowledge of a 70-year-old, she is stuck in a child’s body. Lestat threatened Louis with her life, yet “did not want to threaten her at all, but was loving to her, proud of her beauty, anxious to teach her that they must kill to live, and that they could never die.” This confuses me as a reader, yet intrigues me; Lestat is a difficult character to read. While he comes across as manipulative and selfish, turning her for his own gain, he has moments where he seems to truly care about Claudia, if not Louis as well.
I find Lestat and Claudia's relationship very interesting. It seems to me like rather than Lestat caring for her, he is trying to use the last ounce of power over her he has to make sure he isn't alone in his immortality. I love that Claudia's hatred eventually outweighs his pathetic final attempt at manipulating both Claudia and Louis and they, in the end, try to kill him multiple times.
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